Recent advances in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease metabolomics

The clinical phenotypes of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) encompass from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with varying degrees of fibrosis or cirrhosis. Liver biopsy has been the standard to diagnose NASH. However, there has been strong need for precise and accurate noninvasive tests because of invasiveness and sampling variability of biopsy. Metabolomics has drawn attention as a promising diagnostic methodology in the field of NAFLD, particularly to unravel metabolic alterations which plays relevant roles in the progression of NASH. There have been numerous metabolomics researches to find new biomarker of NASH in the last decade, fueled by the recent advances in the metabolomics methodology. This review briefly covers recent research advances on the lipidomics, amino acids and bile acid metabolomics regarding continuing attempts to discover relevant biomarkers for NASH. (Clin Mol Hepatol 2021;27:553-559)

Automated summary

The clinical spectrum of NAFLD ranges from simple steatosis to NASH, with liver biopsy being the standard for diagnosis. Metabolomics has emerged as a promising diagnostic method to uncover metabolic alterations relevant to NASH progression, with recent research efforts focusing on lipidomics, amino acids, and bile acid metabolomics to discover potential biomarkers.